Getting a mirror finish on your edge?

I am thinking about buying some upgrade stones or strops to help get the mirror edge on my blade. Will the super fine 1200/1600 ceramics accomplish this?or do i also need the micro fine stones. Or will buying the 1, .5 leather strops be better for this? I already have the 5, 3.5 leather strops. And im also wondering how often i should be applying new paste to the leather strop?

Honesty, everything you listed will inevitably bring you closer and closer to a mirror finish (even though I’d consider a well sharpened knife at 1000 grit to be mirror finished). SInce the finer and finer you you, the peaks and valleys in the steel get evened out; therefore, light reflects at a more consistent angle off the surface… That’s a novice explanation from a novice sharpener.

By all means buy these for the sake of saving yourself the time and investing in your overall experience with your WEPS… But there are other, less costly alternatives that can get you that much closer if you’re in a pinch.

Well, the basic ceramics will give you a mirror look when viewing them from an oblique angle. When you start to look close you will still see fine scratches. I did a 3 bevel convex on one of my kitchen knives i toss in the dishwasher today. You can see a semi mirrored finish about half way down. This was after about 20 min of coarse ceramic and 20 min of fine ceramic. I then finished it down with the 1 micron diamond paste on strops. You can see that under magnification at the bottom images, there will still be some form of marring.

Here is a 10″ ikea knife that I use daily. it is not a great steel, but i can use it an put it in the dishwasher. it was last sharpened before our move to va, which was in july. so likely june or late may.

Knife before was pretty much a flat bevel at 17* or 34* inclusive

Before edge.


The belly edge

the tip

the knife after 15.65* primary bevel

<note any level of polish you see is a trick of the light. This was finished down with 1600 grit ceramics, the final edge is significantly more polished. though it will not look it under heavy magnification of 40x

The knife edge after 15.65* degree primary bevel, 16.65 secondary bevel, and 17.65 final bevel blended by 1 micron diamond paste.

Heel edge

middle edge

Belly edge


Tip

Me?

Do you mean placed center to center and there be in a gap? If so yes. They seem to be fine. Keep in mine the photos are ar 40x

Nice work guys!

I was not a fan of my ceramics at first. They did not feel right..So I picked up a DMT fine (red) bench top stone and lapped them. They now feel and act like I expected them to. Smooth as silk. It made all the difference in the world lapping them like this. If you are not happy with your ceramics I highly recommend it. It was like I rubbed magic into them. :blink:

Yes. The 1200/1600 are the only ceramics I have. I have not put much time into sharpening dice I got them working like they are now. Too busy cutting airplane kits and knife handles on the cnc to sharpen. And well. All my knifes are sharp! Lol. I want to give a solid go at another mirror finish again using the ceramics from the 1k grit like you. I Thielking they will help a lot.

I had to lap the micro fines as well as the super fines. The micro fines took forever to lap. They are extremely hard. I also had to start at the 100’s and go up to the 1000’s to smooth them out. But now I get edges like this with them!!

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